The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 8, 1918 (amended by act of July 25, 1963), takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Sergeant First Class Lyle Drake, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations involving conflict with an armed hostile force in the Republic of Vietnam, while serving with Detachment B-55, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces. Sergeant First Class Drake distinguished himself while serving as Senior American Advisor to an element of Vietnamese troops while assaulting enemy positions on Nui Khet Mountain. During the initial phase of the assault, Sergeant Drake and his comrades came under intense enemy small arms, rocket, and grenade fire. Ignoring the enemy fire, he immediately moved throughout his company encouraging his men and directing their fire on the enemy. At this time, the enemy increased the momentum of fighting, showering the friendly troops with grenades. Sergeant Drake again exposed himself to the fire as he moved toward the hostile forces in search of the enemy grenadier. When he reached the vicinity of the grenadier, he assaulted the area with twelve grenades. Although the concussion from the exploding grenades knocked him to the ground on several occasions, Sergeant Drake continued his assault until he reached the grenadier’s position. He then fully exposed himself to both friendly and enemy fire as he crawled on top of a rock formation located five meters from the enemy grenadier and destroyed the position with his remaining grenades. Although suffering from two punctured eardrums, Sergeant Drake refused medical attention and rallied his men to continue the assault. On several occasions he was observed dragging wounded comrades from the line of enemy fire to covered positions. Sergeant Drake’s determined actions so inspired his men to continue the attack, that the mission was successfully completed shortly thereafter.